К вопросу о необходимости взвешивания в межрегиональных исследованиях (ответ на статью К.П. Глущенко)

Yurii Boiko. Forest-Steppe Ukraine: Society in Statistics (1846 – 1897) : Monograph. Riga, Latvia : Baltija Publishing, 2025. 280 p. The monograph is the result of an investigation into the society of the most famous region in the history of Ukraine, which consisted of Kyiv, Podillia, Volyn, Poltava, Chernihiv, and Kharkiv (Slobozhanshchyna) provinces in the mid-second half of the 19th century. The author proposes to call this former “heartland” of Ukraine “Forest-Steppe Ukraine,” similar to the name adopted in archaeology. The study’s novelty lies in the regional approach and the emphasis on the statistical variety of historical sources. What results does the researcher present to the readers? They are atypical for classical Ukrainian historiography: a multidimensional statistical model of the demographic potential of Forest-Steppe Ukraine in the middle of the 19th century; a regional spatial-dynamic model of adverse changes in the provision of agricultural resources to the population from the mid-1840s to the end of the 1890s; multidimensional statistical model of the social situation in the region; statistical classification and typology of urban settlements in the area in the early 1860s; dynamic statistical model of the ethnic composition of the Right-Bank subregion in the second half of the 19th century and the region as a whole according to the 1897 Census; the issue of the state of health and the health care system in the Forest-Steppe provinces of Ukraine using statistical data; a multidimensional statistical model that reflects the ethnic composition of the leading professions in the region at the end of the 19th century. All models are built on the same source base using the same methods, making the obtained results comparable in regional and interregional studies.

According to multiple studies, health holds a key place in the system of life values. Health is the foundation of a happy life and self-realization of the individual. The lack of health bring in serious restrictions on the possibilities of normal life functioning. In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the entire global population faces risks to their health, values of health and life become ever more important. In contemporary Russia there is a contradiction between the high importance of health and the real behavior aimed at preserving it. The level of awareness of the population about various aspects of their own health and healthy lifestyle is low. The population underestimates the importance of behavioral risk factors, especially those whose lifestyle is far from healthy. The article is based on the analysis of the literature and the latest statistical data. It makes an attempt to comprehend the above-described contradiction, its causes and consequences. It is concluded that the formation of a self-preserving ideology, education of a culture of health and “reload” of the value system in such a way that the value of health becomes more real and is embodied in certain strategies of health-preserving behavior is one of the main tasks facing the state and society today. The methodological basis of the work is the study of the Department of Sociology of Family and Demography of the Faculty of Sociology, Lomonosov Moscow State University “Interregional sociological and demographic study of the values of family and children lifestyle (SEDOZH-2019)” conducted in 2018–2019 and supplemented by data from the Public Opinion Foundation, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, Rosstat and WHO.

This chapter provides a literature overview on the use of input–output (I-O) analysis in efficiency and productivity measurements. The exposition covers both the traditional I–O modeling framework and its extension to frontier-based I–O approach that adds elements of frontier analysis into the traditional I–O framework, thus utilizing advantages of both techniques. Accounting for intermediate inputs is especially important in the current economic conditions that are characterized by increased volumes of international trade in intermediate inputs and growing environmental pressures, posing challenges to performance measurement. Therefore, the chapter also provides a discussion of empirical applications of I–O framework in international and interregional trade, environmental studies, and policy scenario analyses.

Understanding management and assessment of diverse forest ecosystems throughout the world is an important objective of forestry education, but may students have limited opportunities for inter-regional and international collaboration and study. A virtual world environment can address limitations in conventional teaching technologies. In this study, a virtual learning environment for the longleaf pine ecosystem is being developed using virtual world technology, which allows avatars to interact with other avatars and objects in online 3D visualization. The ecosystem consists of a stand of trees and associated plants, which are generated by a forest population spatial distribution model based on a selectable statistical distribution patterns. Field exercise features like mensuration and sampling are developed based on statistical methods. The quality of tree rendering is enhanced by utilizing diverse tree models characterized by tree age groups and by switching detailed tree models depending on distance from avatar. The virtual forest environment is expected to help students to learn important management skills and methods by avoiding long trips to real forests, reducing costs, and facilitating collaboration with peers.

The article considers theoretical aspects for the study and understanding of contemporary educational policies with the application of the concepts of bureaucracy. It also presents the results of an interregional study of information flows in the Russian education system. The redundancy, intensity and formalization of these flows constitute one of the painful aspects of work in this sphere, along with unfairly low wages. The article analyzes the materials of extensive sample surveys and the timing of the loads of the main job groups in the education system, data on document flow in institutions of various types and levels, and expert assessments in the three regions of the country. The amount and structure of information flows and paper work lead to institutional dysfunctions, they serve as a means for administrative pressure and imitation of manageability in education system. The article considers their impact on the social and professional well-being of educators. The author concludes that the main source of paper pressure and paper genocide in the education system is a management strategy that ignores the public mission of education and its multifaceted social effectiveness. This strategy expresses distrust of educators, contains ignorance towards public-state governance and has become a dead end for the Russian education system, a major obstacle to maintaining its potential, development and progress in view of growing global competition.

Data science as an emerging branch of applied knowledge and a new field of study is showing a strong momentum. Besides, the corresponding sphere of educational research is actively developing. At the same time, most of the scientific publications are aimed at studying specific issues related to the content of the programs and their methodological support. The wider context and especially the international perspective are lacking for the necessary attention of researchers.In this regard, the purpose of our study was to summarize and systematize information about training programs in the field of data science presented on online platforms of the main macro-regions – America, Europe and Asia. For this purpose, we found out what elements the corpus of data science training programs consists of, as well as how courses are distributed on educational platforms by countries, organizational providers, level of education and duration of study. Based on the data obtained, we conducted a comparative interregional study of educational programs presented on online platforms.The findings made it possible to draw conclusions about the specifics of the global landscape of data science online education, as well as to determine the specifics of the Russian segment and to formulate recommendations for solving significant problems of the domestic economy using data science online education.

The redundancy, intensity and formalization of paperwork in education have become its painful feature: educational bureaucracy and evaluation mania ignore the social mission of education, paper pressure and paper genocide are barriers to its progress and manageability. The article presents the results of an interregional study of managerial information flows in the Russian education system: it analyzes data of representative surveys and timing of the workloads of the main personnel groups, expert assessments, document flows in the education system in the perspective of the theory of bureaucracy and institutional functions of education. Thus, the redundancy of information flows in the school system exceeds the functional needs of management by more than 20 times. The number of the types of documents written by the teacher reaches 95 on average, and their labor intensity is comparable to teaching. Most of the collected information is not reliable and is not used for educational purposes; it is rather a means to ensure the managerial omnipotence and excess personnel. The key source of paper pressure and paper genocide in the education system is the management strategy that ignores the social mission of education and its social efficiency. This strategy expresses bureaucratic distrust to educators and to the possibilities of public-private administration. Practices based on this strategy lead to irrelevant, unreliable and ineffective information flows, deformed social relations and professional culture of teachers, their widespread burnout and outflow from education. The identified management strategy is a dead end for the Russian education system and an obstacle for preserving its potential and development under the growing global competition.